ISTQB Practice Test 1: 40 Questions with Answers

Correct answer: A. The root cause

The root cause is the origin of the problem: removing it prevents the defect recurring. The ambiguous specification is what led to the coded defect and the observed failures.

Correct answer: C. The test management role handles planning, monitoring, control and completion; the testing role handles analysis, design, implementation and execution

CTFL v4.0 describes these two principal roles, and notes that one person may take on both depending on context.

Correct answer: B. A failure can be caused by environmental conditions, such as radiation or electromagnetic fields affecting firmware

The syllabus notes that failures may arise from environmental conditions rather than from a defect introduced by a person.

Correct answer: C. Safety-critical development, where a high level of test independence may be needed

The syllabus notes that the whole team approach may not be appropriate in every context; safety-critical work can require a higher degree of test independence than a fully shared model provides.

Correct answer: A. Reproduction, because static testing finds defects directly and cannot cause failures

Section 1.1.2 states that when static testing identifies a defect, debugging is concerned with removing it, and that there is no need for reproduction or diagnosis since static testing directly finds defects and cannot cause failures.

Correct answer: A. Simulation and prototyping

Section 1.2.2 states that testing is a major form of quality control, while others include formal methods such as model checking and proof of correctness, simulation, and prototyping.

Correct answer: B. Change requests, for example as product backlog items | C. Documented lessons learned

Section 1.4.3 lists change requests, for example as product backlog items, among the test completion work products.

Section 1.4.3 lists documented lessons learned among the test completion work products.

Correct answer: D. Validation

Section 1.1 states that testing involves verification, checking whether the system meets specified requirements, and also validation, which means checking whether the system meets users and other stakeholders needs in its operational environment.

Correct answer: B. Reliability testing

Reliability is one of the ISO/IEC 25010 non-functional quality characteristics listed in 2.2.2; it concerns how well the system maintains service under stated conditions rather than which functions it provides.

Correct answer: C. Confirmation testing to verify the fix, then regression testing to check nothing else broke

Confirmation testing re-runs the test that failed. Regression testing then checks that the change has not adversely affected other behaviour.

Correct answer: D. Specifications for the system as a whole, such as system and software requirement specifications and use cases

Section 2.2.1 states that system testing focuses on the overall behavior and capabilities of an entire system or product, and is related to specifications for the system.

Correct answer: D. It affects the scope and timing of test activities, the level of detail of test documentation, the choice of techniques, the extent of automation and the tester's role

2.1.1 lists these as the impacts of the chosen software development lifecycle on testing.

Correct answer: D. The CI/CD tools have to be introduced and then maintained

Section 2.1.4 lists the risks and challenges of DevOps as: the delivery pipeline must be defined and established, CI/CD tools must be introduced and maintained, and test automation requires additional resources and may be difficult to establish and maintain.

Correct answer: D. In the test completion report

Section 2.1.6 states that the results of a retrospective should be recorded and are normally part of the test completion report.

Correct answer: D. The integration strategy, such as bottom-up, top-down or big-bang

Section 2.2.1 states that component integration testing focuses on the interfaces and interactions between components and is heavily dependent on the integration strategy, giving bottom-up, top-down and big-bang as examples.

Correct answer: C. Exercising the test steps that should reproduce the failure and checking that it no longer occurs

Section 2.2.3 states that when time or money is short when fixing defects, confirmation testing might be restricted to simply exercising the test steps that should reproduce the failure caused by the defect and checking that the failure does not occur.

Correct answer: B. Static testing can find defects that dynamic testing cannot reach, such as requirement ambiguities

Ambiguities, contradictions, omissions and untestable statements are only detectable by examining the work product.

Correct answer: A. The scribe

The scribe (recorder) collates the anomalies raised and records decisions during the review meeting.

Correct answer: B. Informal review

An informal review has no defined process and produces no formally documented results, which is what distinguishes it.

Correct answer: C. Review initiation

During initiation the work product is distributed and the objectives, process and criteria are explained so participants can prepare.

Correct answer: C. The review leader

The review leader takes overall responsibility for the review and decides who participates, along with the timing and location.

Correct answer: A. Educating reviewers about the work product and gaining consensus on it

A walkthrough is led by the author and serves objectives such as evaluating quality, educating participants, and reaching agreement.

Correct answer: A. Before implementation begins, collaboratively by business, development and testing

ATDD writes the acceptance tests first and uses them as the shared specification, which makes it a defect-prevention practice.

Correct answer: A. State transition testing | C. Equivalence partitioning

State transition testing derives tests from a specified model of states and events, not from the code.

Equivalence partitioning derives tests from the specified value domain without reference to internal structure.

Correct answer: C. The basket contents are still present after the customer logs out and back in within 30 days

An acceptance criterion states a condition that must be met for the story to be accepted. Basket contents persisting across a logout within 30 days is objectively checkable.

Correct answer: B. 0-switch coverage requires every valid transition; all transitions coverage additionally requires every invalid transition to be attempted

All transitions coverage requires test cases to exercise all valid transitions and attempt to execute the invalid ones shown as empty cells in the state table. Only one invalid transition should be attempted per test case, to avoid defect masking.

Correct answer: B. Card, Conversation, Confirmation

The three Cs describe the story as a written placeholder (card), the discussion that fills in the detail (conversation), and the acceptance criteria that confirm it (confirmation).

Correct answer: A. Exploratory testing | D. Error guessing

Exploratory testing relies on the tester's knowledge and skill, with learning, design and execution happening concurrently.

Error guessing draws on the tester's experience of how systems typically fail to anticipate where defects are likely.

Correct answer: C. As high-level test conditions

In session-based testing the objectives in the charter may be treated as high-level test conditions, with coverage items identified and exercised during the session.

Correct answer: D. As a question that can be checked separately and directly

Checklist items are often phrased as questions, and each should be checkable on its own without depending on other items.

Correct answer: C. % test cases executed

The percentage of planned test cases executed is a direct measure of progress against plan.

Correct answer: A. Describe testing approach

A test plan documents the objectives, scope, approach and resources for testing.

Correct answer: B. Define test completion

Exit criteria define the conditions that must be met for a test activity or level to be considered complete.

Correct answer: C. Additional coverage prioritization

In this variant of coverage-based prioritization, the highest-coverage test runs first and each subsequent test is chosen for the highest additional coverage it contributes.

Correct answer: B. To provide awareness of product risk so that test effort is focused in a way that minimises residual risk

The goal is to direct effort where it reduces remaining product risk most, not to eliminate risk entirely.

Correct answer: D. Because direct face-to-face communication is not always possible across geographical distance and time differences

The syllabus notes that more formal communication may be more appropriate for distributed teams for exactly this reason.

Correct answer: C. It helps ensure that the performed test activities will meet the established criteria | D. It serves as a means of communication with team members and other stakeholders

A test plan helps ensure the activities carried out will satisfy the criteria that were established for them.

Communication is one of the stated purposes of a test plan.

Correct answer: C. During the defect management process of dealing with the defect reports

The process resolves whether the anomaly is a real defect, a false-positive result, or something else such as a change request.

Correct answer: C. That all appropriate test types and test levels are included in the lifecycle

The model helps visualise the combinations so that no appropriate test type or level is overlooked, and shows that some types suit certain levels more than others.

Correct answer: C. The effort of maintaining the automated tests is underestimated

Underestimating the time, cost and effort of introducing and maintaining a tool is one of the named risks of test automation.